I wouldn’t say that, but VEC is best for those in base. I’m a commuter on VEC and it’s not all that different than the old rules when it comes to call out times.

I have been lucky to APU flying so I can stay busy. That said, you are the first to be converted and get assigned any flying inside 18 hours. Which is fine by me since I’m a commuter. LCL and VEC will get used more often with VECs being regularly converted to SC. TRV is a fine balance of both and probably best for those not wanting to be used a whole lot.

This is dependent on your BES so ymmv

I think that’s likely. If you’re the company, you want your VECs to be available to fix last minute problems, not off flying 4-day trips. In the busy season, they’ll assign trips that way if they have to, but it’s definitely not the ideal usage of that type of reserve.

Yes, I definitely can see this happening with the assignment ladders and rungs…. Since VEC don’t have short call caps and scheduling here loves to rely on short calls plus with the unused short-calls language being in the company’s favor… I foresee VEC are the reserves that the company will use to fix last minute fires…. With the emphasis of targeting LCL cover flying that can get covered ahead of time and TRV to fill in the gaps…

Anecdotally from some friends who are on reserve:

LCLs are always on the top of the list for full trips. They can pretty much count on being used for 3-4 day trips.

VECs will be perpetually on short call every day starting early and/or taking the early show trips with the 12 hour call out.

TRV seems like they will work the least compared to the other two. Again, anecdotally, it seems like TRV folks will work the least.

9 SC in IAH 737 today, and 7 are assigned to TRV. The other two are VEC. There were 15 (!) on the 6th, and 10 were TRV.

So, you may not fly as much, but you’re going to get hit with the crazy amount of short calls that get built every day.

How does that compare to the ratio of VECs/TRVs, though? Meaning at the individual level, are VECs & TRVs getting hit with more, less or the same amount of SCs?

LCL commuter here, with a long commute (SFO-IAH). So far LCL has been working well -- mostly because they can't convert you to SC. I always try to APU trips reporting late-ish on the first day of my rsv blocks, and so far that's been working well (except many of those trips aren't commutable on the back end.) But I'd rather do that then sit in IAH on short call, that's for sure...

I can see VEC being great for local folks, though. But unless one's commute was super short, or driveable in a pinch, I can't imagine bidding VEC as a commuter...

What does "APU" stand for? My (small) company doesn't allow us to pick up trips that fall on our reserve days. That would be nice, and make it a lot more palatable to commute in to sit reserve. But we just don't have the numbers.

Aggressive pick up

How soon to be able to get LCL? I assume many commuters will prefer LCL, so maybe not able to get LCL right away?